Death of Reverend Dr. Eugene E. Grau, Former Missionary to Ghana
12/28/1917 – 7/8/2011
Global Ministries is saddened to learn of the death of Reverend Dr. Eugene (Gene) E. Grau of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday, July 8, 2011, at Philadelphia Protestant Home. He was 93 years old. Eugene was born December 28, 1917, in Esslingen, Germany, son of the late Eugen H. Grau and the late Luise Grau (née Böhmerle).
Dr. Grau came with his family to the United States in December 1928, just before his eleventh birthday. The family lived in the Olney section of Philadelphia, where he attended Olney High School. He graduated from high school from Mission House Academy in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and then attended the Mission House Seminary. He continued his education at the Kennedy School of Missions at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where he received his master’s degree. He completed his Ph.D. at the Hartford Seminary Foundation and was ordained as a Reformed Church minister in 1944. Dr. Grau served as pastor of St. Matthews Reformed Church in Philadelphia until 1946 when he was commissioned as a missionary and immediately traveled to Africa to teach in seminaries in the towns of Ho, Peki, and Legon (Accra) in the country of Gold Coast (the current Ghana). He returned to the United States in 1974 and was pastor of Brownback’s United Church of Christ in Spring City, Chester County, Pennsylvania, until his retirement in 1988, when he was named Pastor Emeritus of the Congregation. After his retirement, he moved back to Philadelphia and lived at the Philadelphia Protestant Home in the Lawndale section of the city.
Dr. Grau is survived by his beloved wife, Dorothy; his children and their spouses Lois McLean and her husband Benjamin, Thomas Castor Grau and his wife Connie, David Paul Grau and his wife Beryl, and William Eugene Grau and his wife Vickie; his nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his sister, Elizabeth Fad
The funeral service will be held at Brownback’s United Church of Christ, 640 Ridge Road, Spring City, PA 19475, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 23, 2011. The family will greet attendees beginning at 10:00 a.m.
At 2:00 p.m. that same afternoon, a memorial service will be held at Bethany Baptist Church, 460 Rhawn Street, Philadelphia, PA 19111 (Fox Chase), followed by the family greeting attendees.
Messages of condolence can be sent to Mrs. Dorothy Grau, 6575 Tabor Ave Apt 119, Philadelphia, PA 19111-5361, or to Mr. David P. Grau, 911 Easton Rd, Willow Grove, PA 19090-2036.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Philadelphia Protestant Home, 6500 Tabor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111 or Brownback’s United Church of Christ, 640 Ridge Road, Spring City, 19475 www.brownbackschurch.org.